JDA - Client C

neil gresty

"Our client had to pay bedroom tax for his two-bedroomed property after his partner and children moved out. This lead to his income being reduced to under £80.00 per week. At one stage, he didn't see his children (both under six, with one disabled) for a year. He also has mental health problems, affecting his memory, organisational skills and reading and writing. He had a suspended possession order after struggling to pay his bedroom tax, but needed two rooms for his children who stayed three days per week. His ex-partner did not contribute towards the cost of food or fuel for looking after the children. Moving to a one bedroomed property would mean not being able to have his children stay. When we started working with our client he wasn't engaging with his social landlord and had no home phone or working mobile. He had been turned down for a Discretionary Housing Benefit because he wouldn't move to any of the one-bedroomed properties he was offered. We liaised with his landlord, social worker, housing benefit, Healthy Homes and his sister. We wrote to the Chair of the Housing asking them to reconsider their decision to make him homeless. We gave them the full facts, and they did not make him homeless. He is now engaging with them, has applied for Discretionary Housing Payment and is paying off his arrears."

The Big Help Project was today welcomed on to Mick Coyle's lunchtime show on Radio City Talk to discuss the opening of the new Food Clubs in Tower Hill and Bootle, and to find out more about the work the Big Help Project does to tackle hunger and poverty in the Liverpool City Region.

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The Big Help Project (Knowsley Foodbank) is a local charity with two clear aims: to feed the hungry in Knowsley, and to work with people who are in poverty to help them overcome that poverty and move on to a better future.